There was a moment when of you <br />A splendid hope I had to tell, <br />Believing 'Here is one man who <br />Will serve our waiting country well.' <br /> <br />I saw you sedulous and keen, <br />I heard the burning words you spoke. <br />It seemed that you were hard and clean, <br />And rapier sharp your every stroke. <br /> <br />Then came success, and in a night <br />An impish thing you stood apart, <br />All empty-handed for the fight, <br />With worse, alas! an empty heart. <br /> <br />Success had spoiled you, said your friends, <br />It was not so, for naught was there <br />To spoil but means to petty ends. <br />At last men saw you bleak and bare. <br /> <br />In those who give you grudging aid <br />These days, may we the spirits see <br />Who for the love of men would raid <br />The strongholds of iniquity? <br /> <br />Are these the heroes high and true, <br />Who, seeing right with honest eyes, <br />Will risk their all in putting through <br />Democracy's stern Enterprise? <br /> <br />You had no wealth of love. You failed <br />For that. Your heart may never cling <br />To men upon their crosses nailed, <br />To brothers sadly travailing.<br /><br />Edward George Dyson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-politician/
